El Torero
12-12-2008, 06:02 AM
Germany's finance minister accused other European Union states of "tossing around billions" before a summit on Thursday, deepening a rift over Berlin's resistance to demands to spend more to revive the EU's economy.
Leaders of the 27-nation bloc want to agree at a two-day summit on a €200-billion, or $260-billion, stimulus package to wrench the bloc out of recession, but Germany - the largest economy in Europe - says it will not contribute more.
In an interview with Newsweek magazine, the German finance minister Peer Steinbrück singled out Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain for abandoning fiscal prudence and switching to policies that would saddle a generation with debt.
"The speed at which proposals are put together under pressure that don't even pass an economic test is breathtaking and depressing," Steinbrück said in the interview, published on the magazine's Web site on Wednesday.
"The same people who would never touch deficit spending are now tossing around billions."
Although EU nations have backed most of the stimulus package proposed by the European Commission last month, Berlin has come under pressure to increase its national contribution and does not want to copy Britain in cutting value added tax.
Britain is to pump £20 billion, or $30 billion, into the economy to 2010 which includes tax cuts and £3 billion of capital spending. Germany has cited plans worth €31 billion over two years but with a budget impact of just €10.9 billion to 2012.
EU leaders also aim to agree new rules for industry to tackle global warming and will study a plan by the EU's French presidency to address Irish concerns over a treaty setting out reforms of the bloc. They hope Dublin will hold a new referendum next year on a text which its voters rejected in June.
In the most explicit acknowledgement yet by Dublin that it could hold a new referendum, Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said such a vote could take place if Ireland won assurances on keeping a permanent seat on the European Commission and that its military neutrality would not be undermined.
EU officials are upbeat about chances of a deal with Ireland on holding a new referendum next year to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. The rejection by Irish voters last June stalled a project that needs the approval of all 27 member states.
Martin told the public broadcaster RTE that the proposals drawn up by France address Irish demands for a guarantee of one seat on the European Commission and that its traditional military neutrality would not be undermined.
"Work remains to be completed with our European partners over the coming months and any second referendum is conditional on satisfactory conclusion of that work," he said.
The draft document, obtained by Reuters, includes additional assurances on taxation policy, workers' rights and other issues which contributed to Irish voters' rejection of the treaty, and commits Ireland to ratifying the treaty by end-2009.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany - dubbed 'Madame Non' by some media for resisting calls by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to do more - is also at the center of a stand-off over an EU plan to cut carbon emissions by a fifth by 2020.
.:awesome.
Leaders of the 27-nation bloc want to agree at a two-day summit on a €200-billion, or $260-billion, stimulus package to wrench the bloc out of recession, but Germany - the largest economy in Europe - says it will not contribute more.
In an interview with Newsweek magazine, the German finance minister Peer Steinbrück singled out Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain for abandoning fiscal prudence and switching to policies that would saddle a generation with debt.
"The speed at which proposals are put together under pressure that don't even pass an economic test is breathtaking and depressing," Steinbrück said in the interview, published on the magazine's Web site on Wednesday.
"The same people who would never touch deficit spending are now tossing around billions."
Although EU nations have backed most of the stimulus package proposed by the European Commission last month, Berlin has come under pressure to increase its national contribution and does not want to copy Britain in cutting value added tax.
Britain is to pump £20 billion, or $30 billion, into the economy to 2010 which includes tax cuts and £3 billion of capital spending. Germany has cited plans worth €31 billion over two years but with a budget impact of just €10.9 billion to 2012.
EU leaders also aim to agree new rules for industry to tackle global warming and will study a plan by the EU's French presidency to address Irish concerns over a treaty setting out reforms of the bloc. They hope Dublin will hold a new referendum next year on a text which its voters rejected in June.
In the most explicit acknowledgement yet by Dublin that it could hold a new referendum, Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said such a vote could take place if Ireland won assurances on keeping a permanent seat on the European Commission and that its military neutrality would not be undermined.
EU officials are upbeat about chances of a deal with Ireland on holding a new referendum next year to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. The rejection by Irish voters last June stalled a project that needs the approval of all 27 member states.
Martin told the public broadcaster RTE that the proposals drawn up by France address Irish demands for a guarantee of one seat on the European Commission and that its traditional military neutrality would not be undermined.
"Work remains to be completed with our European partners over the coming months and any second referendum is conditional on satisfactory conclusion of that work," he said.
The draft document, obtained by Reuters, includes additional assurances on taxation policy, workers' rights and other issues which contributed to Irish voters' rejection of the treaty, and commits Ireland to ratifying the treaty by end-2009.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany - dubbed 'Madame Non' by some media for resisting calls by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to do more - is also at the center of a stand-off over an EU plan to cut carbon emissions by a fifth by 2020.
.:awesome.